July 3, 2003

O’Reilly has released the “Google Pocket Guide” to help Google users learn the fundamentals of a Google search.

The book includes making the most of Google’s special syntaxes, hidden options, and powerful combinations; consulting the Google dictionary; looking up individuals and businesses in the Google phonebook; finding related web sites and pages; and restricting or expanding a Google search by subject, web site, domain, time, title, etc.

“It enables a computer to reason and speak in an ethical fashion, serving in roles specifying sound human judgement, such as public relations or security functions,” LaMuth said. “This innovation is completely novel in its ability to simulate… read more

July 2, 2003

The U.S. Congress is on the verge of approving legislation that would require the government to examine the implications of nanotechnology as it pumps funds into the promising field. The U.K. government is also moving to probe nanotech’s promise and peril.

July 1, 2003

British scientists are developing a microchip that gives people with prosthetic arms greater control over these limbs. The chip works by turning thought processes in the brain into direct advanced physical movements.

July 1, 2003

Japanese researchers have created hollow “nanocages” of proteins that can hold a few molecules of a drug (or a gene, for use in gene therapy) and bring them straight to the liver.

The scientists, who report on their work in the journal Nature Biotechnology, used a protein from the hepatitis B virus. When this protein is created in large amounts, it forms cagelike structures of about 110 molecules each,… read more

July 1, 2003

Howard Hughes Medical Institute researchers have produced a genetically altered mouse that exhibits behavioral abnormalities strikingly similar to those observed in humans with schizophrenia and have identified a genetic variant associated with schizophrenia in humans.

According to the researchers, the findings could mean they have identified a molecular signaling pathway — the calcineurin pathway in the forebrain — involved in the origin of schizophrenia. If so, the search for… read more

July 1, 2003

Imagine sprinkling tiny sensors on road and fields for surveillance, putting them in buildings and bridges to monitor structural health, and installing them in industrial facilities to manage energy, inventory and manufacturing processes. That’s the idea behind the emerging technology of wireless sensor networks.

During 2001, there were 150 million CPU class chips sold. But during the same period of time, 7.5 billion embedded microcontrollers were sold.

July 1, 2003

Hybrid devices that are part machine, part living cells offer new hope to patients with kidney problems for whom purely artificial treatments like dialysis aren’t good enough.

A “bioartificial kidney,” being developed by Nephros Therapeutics, is based on a plastic cartridge containing one billion human kidney cells thriving inside 4,000 translucent, hollow, plastic fibers. It is based on a decade of research by University of Michigan internist David Humes.… read more

July 1, 2003

NEC has revealed a prototype of a laptop computer that runs on a methanol fuel cell instead of a rechargeable battery and said it will start selling it next year.

NEC initially plans to introduce a computer with a fuel-cell system able to run for five consecutive hours on a single cartridge of methanol fuel. It also plans a PC within two years that can run continuously for 40… read more

June 30, 2003

Small tech is helping medicinal molecules such as proteins, peptides, genes and vaccines reach the right destination with greater precision, speed and control.

Researchers are developing devices that can deliver drugs to specific structures within the cell. Others are developing devices to be implanted under a patient’s skin or in the abdomen that would provide tiny, precise doses of hormones, pain medication or other pharmaceuticals on a customizable schedule.… read more